I focus almost exclusively on PvP, whether solo, small gang, or large bloc warfare. In the past, I've been a miner, mission runner, and faction warfare jockey. I'm particularly interested in helping high-sec players get into 0.0 combat.

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Today, the leaders of the majority of sov null-sec got
together and issued a brief, but poignant statement about the state of sovereignty. In it, they lay out three key points, which
can be easily translated to the following:

Continued null-sec
ownership should be based upon utilization of space. Each null-sec entity is, theoretically, a
separate sovereign “nation”, if you will, with its own culture and civilization. Essentially, they recognize that that a
civilization consists of what it does, not what it owns.

Null-sec should be less
secure. By adding NPC space all
around them, they’re begging for additional content closer to home. NPC space can’t be tamed, and the fact that
all of these entities signed on to it is telling as to what they and their
members want out of the game.

Null-sec systems
should be able to sustain a large number of players. Does it make sense that an entire star system
can only sustain a handful of players under Dominion mechanics? Of course not! It’s important to note that the request
wasn’t for more moon minerals in this space, but rather the ability for players
to earn isk in this space.

Most importantly, this statement was signed by the leaders
of Goonswarm, NC., Nulli Secunda, PL, Brave, Test, FCON, The Bastion, INIT,
TNT, Razor (“The Troika” refers to the three elected leaders – including one of
my CEOs, Troyd –not a specific character, BTW), CO2, Executive Outcomes, FA,
Fweddit, LAWN, SMA, The Kadeshi, Darkness., Pasta, HONOR, and xxDeath. It was also co-signed by 8 sitting CSM
members.

Thursday, September 25, 2014

A corpmate and I were involved in a discussion about the
state of null-sec, and the topic of B0TLRD came up recently. For those of you who aren’t aware, in a
nutshell B0TLRD is an agreement between the CFC and Pandemic Legion that
neither will interfere with sov or POS structures of the other in a laundry
list of claimed systems, nor camp or otherwise disrupt each others’ rental
empires to any great extent (roams are okay, gatecamps are okay, but no cloaky
camps that shut down entire systems for hours on end), nor move fleets of a
size that could constitute a sov threat.

Effectively B0TLRD removes risk from about 2/3 of the galaxy
for the CFC coalition and PL alliance.
Note the phrasing of that… I’ll get to that later.

My corpmate made the following comment:

“Tal I have to disagree with the B0TLRD accords being the
source of stagnation [in null-sec]. It's
much, MUCH bigger than that. B0TLORD
protects our space, as well as BOT's space.. and that's it. It keeps both CFC and PL from engaging each
other, as well as hotdropping each other in their own space. It does *NOT* Protect PL's allies (N3 or
their renters).”

I suspect a number of people share the same opinion, and on
the surface, it seems to be an accurate one.
But I respectfully disagree with it.
B0TLRD is a huge cause of stagnation, and I believe it’s directly
responsible for the malaise, unsubs, and migration from sov entities currently
affecting null-sec.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

In case you haven’t heard already, Razor recently deployed to Black
Rise to practice our individual pilot skills in a small-gang environment
(contrary to propaganda, we have not joined faction warfare – shame on you for
believing self-identified propaganda!).
Right now, there are pretty much two areas of known space seeing a lot
of action: the Provi/Catch region and the Black Rise area of faction warfare space. Seeing that there are ~reasons~ the CFC won’t
deploy to actually engage in a significant bloc war with N3 and PL (see what I
did there?), the next best thing is to get the kind of great fun you can only
get from small gang.

So far, we’ve been in Hallanen for about three days and a lot of our
pilots have been making some ridiculous mistakes. Many just aren’t very familiar with low-sec
and faction warfare mechanics, and there’s bound to be a bit of a learning curve. Nto to mention, we’re running smack-dab into
the two diverging low-sec metas (cheap ships fit “oddly” and expensive
doctrines to fight outnumbered).

Friday, September 12, 2014

I do read the posts in the Brave Newbies subreddit, even
though I feel a little strange posting in it as a non-member. It’s a great place to find out what different
kinds of players thinks about. A comment
made about my How to Fly a Dramiel post suggested that seeding markets and making isk in null is a lot harder than
I make it out to be.

I know I’m not space-rich. For that reason, I’ve never considered writing
a “how I made my isk” article. But, the
topic was raised, and I wanted to go through how I made my isk, if only to show
that it’s very possible to be comfortable, even without being ground-breaking
or particularly smart. If I can do it, anyone
can.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

There are a variety of ways to fit each ship in New Eden, and
a lot of them are bad. In this guide,
I’ll show you the most popular way of flying the Dramiel, some of the pitfalls,
and some of the considerations you should keep in mind.

What leads me to choose a particular ship for one of these
guides? It’s simple: I see a lot of
people flying ridiculous fits that die ignobly.
Just because it’s a pirate frig doesn’t mean it’s good at
everything. Like my How to Fly a Curse and How to Fly a Cynabal guides, there are exceptions to what I put here. But the vast majority of players will want to
start with a more traditional fit before branching off to a fit meant for a
very specific situation.

Also, please keep in mind that the setups I’m proposing are
for solo or small gang usage. You should
never fly a Dramiel in a large fleet environment. It’s stupid, and you will die.

Thursday, September 4, 2014

In a recent reddit comment thread,
I hinted that it was only a matter of time before I cite Nietzsche in relation
to Eve. Congrats... we're there.

I love Nietzsche because he forces you to re-evaluate the
basic foundation upon which you build constructs about the world. In Will
to Power, Nietzsche explains how the impetus – the driving force behind
human creation and motivation – becomes blunted, soft, and idle when when we
cease to look for meaning and definition within ourselves and we begin to look
for an external source for meaning. When
“What do I feel?” is replaced with “What should I feel?” and “What do I
desire?” is replaced with “What should I want?” the individual suffers and, in
the process, reduces the species as a whole.

And SRP is a life-denying factor in a sov-null alliance that would send
Nietzsche into a boiling rage.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

It was a good vacation, and it provided me with exactly the relaxation
we all need from time to time. While I
was gone, I missed several Razor victories in the Alliance Tournament, though I
did get to see the last victory, a couple hours before they were knocked
out. I give all the team members a
tremendous amount of credit. It’s a hard
task to put together a solid team, and they managed to win several victories, which
is no small feat.

My Internet connection was very weak at the hotel, so I wasn’t able to
commit to any strenuous PvP activities, but I did manage a few solo roams between
bouts of weekend visitors during the week.
In so doing, I realized an important lesson about improving your flying.

I’ve written before about how you need to surprise your opponents in battle. But what about when you
happen to be the one surprised?

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